From the instant that they are born unwanted, their lives take the wrong turn and they find themselves, innocent, in a life sentence.

9/13/2015

Broken spirits

The world still has a
few tricks up its sleeve and they are, in most cases, deadly. Parvovirus is the
main character of the horror story called “A stray puppy’s life in Romania”, but
there are also Distemper, Corona virus, even the classic mange doing the job
and one can always depend on the possibility that they become road kill. Why so
violent all of a sudden? Because puppies refuse to give up their innocence and
continue to put their faith in us. Have they not discovered the truth yet??

In
life, there is nothing as innocent and sweet as children; nothing so new and
naive, so eager to love and be happy with the ones they love. It is absolutely
the same for puppies. From the time they are born, they are blind to this world
and can only connect with it through the mother. For a while, they have no idea
if they are wanted or not, such concept doesn’t even exist to them; they are
fed and kept warm by the mother, as best as she can, sometimes with the price
of unimaginable effort. But the newborns don’t know that, as their only job is
to be cute, grow big and strong and discover the world they were born into.
Mother nature, with her motherly instincts at work, is desperately trying to
keep them from finding out the secret, but she can only do so for 14 days or so;
as we, humans, sometimes lie to our children to protect their innocence, mother
nature struggles to keep the newborns protected against the ugly truth: the
world in which million of animals are born into everyday. So, our world has
become the animals’ nightmare, but why? Is it because we are too busy and
selfish to think about anybody else besides us? Or is it maybe because we see
ourselves as being superior to all other creatures on this Earth? But why do we
choose to show our superiority by torturing the ones we call “beings with no
conscience”? I have no answer to that.

Their
first 2 months of life, while they rely only on their mother’s milk, puppies
are innocent to the tragedy that awaits them. Mother dogs fight tremendously to
keep their litters safe and somewhat fed every 6 months; we see their struggle
when they come in for a safe spay procedure, by looking at their teeth, their
nipples and by the exhausted look in their eyes before the surgery.

Being
innocent and new, young puppies find the strength to play and have fun with
each other even on an empty stomach. Not once have I stumbled upon puppies
looking like they were having the fun of their lives, only to discover they
were probably starving for days. Constant hunger is the first sign the world is
giving to them, letting them in on the secret...a terrible secret they have yet
to discover.

Hunger
and cold soon strike in to show them the real face of the world that shelters
them. “Shelter” isn’t really the word to describe what the world is offering,
but the puppies don’t know that, as they came into this life shinny new and
willing to trust and to love us; little do they know about what we have planned
for them. But as any innocent creatures, dogs don’t ever value luxury or
wealth, so they don’t mind having any kind of shelter, just as long as they are
allowed to have one. They go on with their lives surrounded by our garbage, it
is fine with them and it is fine with us, since they are no more than that:
public waste.

The
word “public” should mean just that, something that is everyone’s
responsibility, but somehow we manage to turn it into something that isn’t
anyone’s responsibility, but everyone’s problem. It is an absurd way to see
things and dogs can’t understand any of it, except that they are to blame for
it all. The “guilty feeling” is the next sign they are given; soon after their
birth they are forced to feel that they are responsible for something they have
yet to understand, but even so, they are the only ones to blame for the dirty
streets and parks, for the flees in the grass, for making people feel scared
and grossed out, for barking when they feel like it, for lying in the streets
when they are weak, for looking aggressive when they are healthy, for scaring
children when they want to play, for scaring children when they don’t feel like
playing, for infecting the world with their illness, for turning tourists away,
for making politicians look bad...The best thing they can hope for after such a
long list of sins is for people to just ignore them.

The world still has a
few tricks up its sleeve and they are, in most cases, deadly. Parvovirus is the
main character of the horror story called “A stray puppy’s life in Romania”, but
there are also Distemper, Corona virus, even the classic mange doing the job
and one can always depend on the possibility that they become road kill. Why so
violent all of a sudden? Because puppies refuse to give up their innocence and
continue to put their faith in us. Have they not discovered the truth yet??

Some of them discover
the secret before others and they are so terrified of it, that they find their
voices and cry for help; some are lucky enough to get it, some just die knowing
there was nobody there for them, nobody cares about their cry and that the
world is really what it has revealed itself to be.

*
The puppy in this photo shocked us all last spring when she emerged from the
bushes as we passed by and started to cry and jump on our 11 years old visitor,
as if she was waiting for her one chance in the world to be saved. We didn’t
let her down and Isla is now happily adopted in Scotland.

Most
puppies never live beyond 3-4 months of age; most of them die slow, painful
deaths, killed by one of the deadly diseases still present in Romania, or by
starvation in one of the tens of public shelters working throughout our
country. Very few of them are adopted or protected in the street and there is a
big chance they are survivors of car accidents, severe illness, physical or
mental abuse. Most puppies die knowing the ugly truth, but what is so
surprising about them is that, if offered a chance, they are willing to jump
back to their innocence and be happy with their loved ones forever. The lucky
few who are adopted will soon forget about what they’ve learned in Romania; I
guess they are blessed that way and I often wonder if we, the humans, would be
able to continue our lives if we’d learned what they did at such an early age. No
matter at what point in their lives they discover the truth, dogs never
understand it; my experience taught me that dogs are not built to grasp
concepts such as cruelty, indifference, pettiness, discrimination, hatred.

So, what is the big
secret? What does the world try to show them by submitting them to such cruel
trials? The secret is that they are UNWANTED!
Nobody asked for them or welcomes them into this world! Nobody needs their
cuddles, or has time to play with them and we certainly can’t find any use for
their innocence into what we created for ourselves on this planet!! Who has any
time or will to learn about compassion and unconditional love from them, as
they prove more and more to be deadly
weapons into nowadays’ world?! Who needs them? Who WANTS them? Nobody...so they
must perish!

Hundred of thousands of unwanted animals die each year all
over Romania. Their story is never told, as their tiny lives don’t seem to
matter in the bigger picture. But we here, at Romania Animal Rescue, have another picture for the tomorrow’s
world: a future where no animal is born unwanted and has to suffer for it.
Please join us in our fight by donating to Paypal: romaniadogs@sbcglobal.net or directly through
our website: http://romaniaanimalrescue.org!

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Who am I?

I am the leader of a small NGO for dogs in Romania and I have joined RAR's noble fight, because I believe only SPAY or NEUTER can solve Romania's stray dogs' issue. I have seen for myself the benefits both for the animals and for the communities. We can prevent more unwanted animals being born into a world that has no place for them. Neuter or spay! No more strays!